Archive for 'UK Personal Taxes'

Opportunities to Mitigate the Increase in Capital Gains Tax

Opportunities to Mitigate the Increase in Capital Gains Tax

The new Conservative/Lib Dem coalition government has just published the text of the Coalition Agreement made between the parties. Should you wish you may view this via the link below. The agreement states that it is the intention of the new government to increase the rate of Capital Gains Tax (“CGT”) for “non business assets”.  [...]

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Prepare for VAT to Rise to 20%

Prepare for VAT to Rise to 20%

Before the recent election all the three main parties were saying that they “had no plans to increase or extend VAT”. In fact the Labour Party actually ruled it out, but then they knew full well that the chance of them being in power, even with Lib Dem support, was fairly negligible. So it proved. [...]

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You Can Reclaim Inheritance Tax

You Can Reclaim Inheritance Tax

I was talking to an Independent Financial Advisor a couple of days ago and in conversation asked him how he was getting on winding up the estate of a mutual client who died about 18 months ago. “Fine”, he said, “but it looks like we have paid too much Inheritance Tax on the house” – [...]

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Five Ways to Save Inheritance Tax

Five Ways to Save Inheritance Tax

Benjamin Franklin said, “In this life nothing is certain but death and taxes”. When anyone who is resident or domiciled in the UK dies those they leave behind will find that HMRC will want a slice of the dead person’s estate – their money, house, possession etc. This tax used to be called Death Duties [...]

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The Taxation of Non Executive Director Fees

The Taxation of Non Executive Director Fees

There has long been a common misconception that the payment of fees to non-executive directors can be made without having to account for tax and National Insurance (NI) by way of the PAYE system. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Directors, non-executive or otherwise, are considered to be “officeholders” by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) [...]

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How Much Can I Put In An ISA?

How Much Can I Put In An ISA?

I’ve suddenly had a lot of people contact me to ask the above question regarding the tax free ISA (Individual Savings Account) products that are available to UK taxpayers. This is probably due to changes that came in last month. If you don’t know what an ISA is then have a look at this earlier article. [...]

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Accountants Denied Privilege

Accountants Denied Privilege

When I trained as a tax accountant many years ago there was a clear understanding that my duty was to my client and whilst I should not collude in illegal tax evasion or financial irregularity I owed no duty to “rat” on clients to the authorities. Indeed it was always accepted that anything told to [...]

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